I'll admit that Night Gallery is not on par with Serling's original Twilight Zone. While TZ was a fantasy series made up largely of morality tales, NG is a Horror series that was not nearly as interested in couching messages within its episodes.
Night Gallery is a collection of stories, none of which have anything to do with each other. There's no need to watch anything in order, there's no never-ending story arcs to stay abreast of. It's like opening up a book of short stories and picking one from the lot. Sometimes NG reminds me of the old EC Comics, and maybe some of its TV successors like Tales from the Darkside or even Creepshow. And what I think is most interesting is that many of these stories are adopted works of short Horror by acclaimed writers like August Derleth, H.P. Lovecraft, Richard Matheson and more.
Rod Serling was not as involved in this even though the series features his name and episode introductions prominently. In fact, much of this series is very of its time and budget. The fashions are garish, and the special effects are often wonky. A few of these segments will leave you scratching your head with an abrupt ending, and some will leave you fascinated by their impact. Some may make you fall asleep while others may piss you off because you'll feel like you've wasted your time. But some of them will make your jaw drop or send a chill up your spine. And THAT'S the hook. You never know what you're going to get. They're the TV equivalent of Forrest Gump's box of chocolates, I suppose.
Like the Twilight Zone, there are so many stories that if you spend time away from the series, the rediscovery ratio is high because there is no overarching single story. Rediscovery is the beauty of anthologies.
Review by whitsbrainVIP 5BlockedParent2022-02-27T15:13:19Z
I'll admit that Night Gallery is not on par with Serling's original Twilight Zone. While TZ was a fantasy series made up largely of morality tales, NG is a Horror series that was not nearly as interested in couching messages within its episodes.
Night Gallery is a collection of stories, none of which have anything to do with each other. There's no need to watch anything in order, there's no never-ending story arcs to stay abreast of. It's like opening up a book of short stories and picking one from the lot. Sometimes NG reminds me of the old EC Comics, and maybe some of its TV successors like Tales from the Darkside or even Creepshow. And what I think is most interesting is that many of these stories are adopted works of short Horror by acclaimed writers like August Derleth, H.P. Lovecraft, Richard Matheson and more.
Rod Serling was not as involved in this even though the series features his name and episode introductions prominently. In fact, much of this series is very of its time and budget. The fashions are garish, and the special effects are often wonky. A few of these segments will leave you scratching your head with an abrupt ending, and some will leave you fascinated by their impact. Some may make you fall asleep while others may piss you off because you'll feel like you've wasted your time. But some of them will make your jaw drop or send a chill up your spine. And THAT'S the hook. You never know what you're going to get. They're the TV equivalent of Forrest Gump's box of chocolates, I suppose.
Like the Twilight Zone, there are so many stories that if you spend time away from the series, the rediscovery ratio is high because there is no overarching single story. Rediscovery is the beauty of anthologies.